Do you use your official phone or internet connection for your personal use too often?
Do you believe it is an accepted practice and you can always take it for granted?
While taking these small privileges from our employer we do not realize that we fall prey of these addictions which make us less productive at our work place. Try calculating the accumulated time spent on such personal activities in a month or year and realize the damage to your employer due to this.
The loss of work should be calculated on two accounts-
Firstly, by the value of that facility for the period of use.
Secondly, the loss to your employer for not doing your work during that period.
Organizations do have their stated or unstated policies regarding such usage. It is also the responsibility of employees to stay in the frame work of those policies.
There may be situations where it may not be practical to use your personal phone or internet connection at your work place. Your personal usage during work time may be too small to think for a separate connection/device or you may not be able to afford it.
The core question in this issue is ‘how much is too much?’
There can not be a universal answer to this question. The dividing line has to be drawn depending upon each individual situation.
Who will do that?
Your boss?
Your department?
The best judge is not an outsider, but you yourself.
Its OK. So far the use is rare not routine.
The problem comes when this is done repeatedly which ultimately turns to become a habit. Once the habit is fully developed, we do it even without acknowledging ourselves. That is a dangerous situation. We stop regulating ourselves and usage can grow very fast. By the time we are reminded by someone else, it is too late to change the habit pattern.
The logic to solve this problem is very simple. Just keep the personal use to bare minimum, preferably only during emergencies.